The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-01-27
nlanitomof pilot.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 81. 1887.
FARMER BILL NYE.
From The Northwestern Miller

d IDSH SJdle OI CulINdClOn- DuI III Ofuef
to get the best results, more machinery
IS needed next year than | feel like
purchasing We need two new sulky
plows on the place, two seeders, new
tanning mill, thresher with traction
engine, three reapers with binders, a
cut worm eradicator. a curculiO buster,
a squash-b arTester, Hessian fly
datector, a chinch-bug crusher, a
potato bug assassination, and a steam
gopher stabber.
L started IN to farm it little.
because | saw in one of my papers
that in the preceding five years a
large percentage of our people had
centered at the cities and that most of
our inhabitants were going to cities
OF over 5000 in population. | said to
myself, this will make wheat high and
L VIII SOW large acreage adjoining
my estate, to that cereal. I did SO, I
also agriculted some in other lines.
l dad not know much about it. as
did not think farmer had to know
much. L had seen crops growing and
could readily distinguish between
Lima beans and sorghum at twenty
yards
| sowed sixty acres to wheat. ten
acres to oats, and planted some Yege-
tables. JOINT worms took the grain.
cabbage worms paralyzed the kraut
| orchard, cut worms took the tomatoes
and melons, apple worms devoured
my choice Siberian crab apples and a
tape worm carried off my hired man.
then began to see why our boys
leave the farm" [ could see then
why our population is surging toward
| the large cities.
They do it to save their lives. [
next resolved to abandon the vege-
tables and devote my valuable space
to grain. The following spring a
good horse of mine ate two ounces of
Paris green that had been spilled on
a bunch Of barbed wire. He also ate
the blrbed wire. He would have eaten
the county Jail if it had been green.
The other horse ate a quart Of London
purple that had bought the previous
year for my Southdown potata bugs.
f4a. probably got up IN the night to
look for the Paris green, and being
color blind, he took the purple.
/ bought new team, one member
Of which was ''cribber," while the
other had the ''thumps." Before that
L did not know that ''thumps" was a
contagious disease outside the prize
ring, but that's what allied this horse.
That fall had $50 bushels of No. 8
wheat, worth II cents in Minneapolis.
a COW that had hollow horn so that [
had to be up half the night with her.
q horse that had the thumps so that
he couldn't take long breath, and a
crlbber that would catch hold of a
hltching post and suck in so much
atmosphere that everybody in our
county gasped for breath.
But poor as the wheat crop was, it
was all | had in return for my toll.
| W hen L remembered how [ had
worked till the honest sweat stood out
on the brow of my hired man like the
button on barn door, [ said to my
| self this Is the reason that boys leave
the farm and go away to business
college and learn to make penmanship
birds and capitals with side whiskers
| on them.
This, | said, is the reason that
farmers boys get mad at the long life
OF toll and hardship at last and flee
away to congress.
The past season [ decided to grow
wheat on my estate. 1t is not ALWAYS
4 sure crop, but it was the only thing
had made any money from 50 far, so
| put in wheat.
La June the crop looked well. but
IN July, while l was engaged one day
IN Sharing gophers with pickeral
| line, L discovered several small dap
pied bugs, about three twentieths of
an inch III length, playing 4 shy in
the wheat. They had peculiar
aroma which they carried with them
to shed IN case they got stepped on.
| carried few of these bugs to a
friend of mine who had been in the
| farming business all his life. and
asked hlm what they were. He said
that they We're chinch bugs, and that
| by and by there would be more of
| them.
He was right.
Every little while female chinch
bug would come cackiing off the nest.
and you could find 500 eggs there as
soon as she went away. If I watched
here carefully with a glass. | noticed
that she would wander about few
minutes, then suddenly she would
remember something and go back to
the nest where she would lay 500 more
eggs. In this way it did not take
long to accumulate enough chinch
bugs so that | could supply those who
had been less fortunate. SO [ told
the other farmers that they could
come over any time and help them
selves. | allowed them to take the
young bugs, or eggs enough to set
their own bugs, just as they thought
| best.
La July the chinch bugs were all
thrifty and the wheat was all ripe.
1t was unusually forward this year.
SO | cut it month earlier than usual.
Chnch bugs can ripen off a field of
wheat IN one night-if they are feel
ing we'll.
II Ndo 100 early TO thrash, so
stacked my wheat. [ wanted it done
we'll, so l stacked it myself. When
the work was done, the weather was
very dry, and good many thought it
would never rain again, but it did.
| 1t rained last week with great
severity. Yesterday went out to see
my stacks. There is very handsome
little lawn on the north side of
each one.
/ can do most any other manual
work, but | am not a good stacker.
! To those who pant for good stacker,
let NE say, do not come to me. While
| can stack grain that Will shed long,
dry spell and come out looking fresh
and bright, I do not pretend to stack
1t so IT will shed lightning and earth
quakes, deluges, simoons and all other
I or oY.l